New Debtors' Prison

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/03/us/probation-fees-multiply-as-companies-profit.html?pagewanted=all

Excerpts:
CHILDERSBURG, Ala. — Three years ago, Gina Ray, who is now 31 and unemployed, was fined $179 for speeding. She failed to show up at court (she says the ticket bore the wrong date), so her license was revoked.

When she was next pulled over, she was, of course, driving without a license. By then her fees added up to more than $1,500. Unable to pay, she was handed over to a private probation company and jailed — charged an additional fee for each day behind bars.

For that driving offense, Ms. Ray has been locked up three times for a total of 40 days and owes $3,170, much of it to the probation company. Her story, in hardscrabble, rural Alabama, where Krispy Kreme promises that “two can dine for $5.99,” is not about innocence.

It is, rather, about the mushrooming of fines and fees levied by money-starved towns across the country and the for-profit businesses that administer the system. The result is that growing numbers of poor people, like Ms. Ray, are ending up jailed and in debt for minor infractions.

“With so many towns economically strapped, there is growing pressure on the courts to bring in money rather than mete out justice,” said Lisa W. Borden, a partner in Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz, a large law firm in Birmingham, Ala., who has spent a great deal of time on the issue. “The companies they hire are aggressive. Those arrested are not told about the right to counsel or asked whether they are indigent or offered an alternative to fines and jail. There are real constitutional issues at stake.”

Here in Childersburg, where there is no public transportation, Ms. Ray has plenty of company in her plight. Richard Garrett has spent a total of 24 months in jail and owes $10,000, all for traffic and license violations that began a decade ago.

“The Supreme Court has made clear that it is unconstitutional to jail people just because they can’t pay a fine,” Mr. Dawson said in an interview.

“These companies are bill collectors, but they are given the authority to say to someone that if he doesn’t pay, he is going to jail,” said John B. Long, a lawyer in Augusta, Ga., who is taking the issue to a federal appeals court this fall.

Stephen B. Bright, president of the Southern Center for Human Rights, who teaches at Yale Law School, said courts were increasingly using fees “for such things as the retirement funds for various court officials, law enforcement functions such as police training and crime laboratories, victim assistance programs and even the court’s computer system.” He added, “In one county in Pennsylvania, 26 different fees totaling $2,500 are assessed in addition to the fine.”


UPDATE

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/14/u...?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20120714
Judge in Alabama Halts Private Probation

A county judge in Alabama has temporarily shut down a system in a town near Birmingham where people fined for speeding and unable to afford the ticket are handed over to a private probation company and sometimes sent to jail, where additional fees are imposed.

Judge Hub Harrington of Shelby County issued the order this week, saying that he was “appalled” by what he characterized as a “debtors’ prison.”

“From a fair reading of the defendants’ testimony, one might ascertain that a more apt description of the Harpersville Municipal Court practices is that of a judicially sanctioned extortion racket,” he added. “Most distressing is that these abuses have been perpetrated by what is supposed to be a court of law. Disgraceful.”

Judge Harrington ordered a preliminary injunction against the town and company, calling their officials to a hearing on Aug. 20. He also barred any further detention in local jails of those placed on probation without his written permission. He ordered that anyone convicted in Harpersville Municipal Court be given 30 days to pay the fine without further fines or fees being imposed by the probation company.

 

removed by poster

 

removed by poster

 

The "To Protect And Serve" is completely gone from most departments now and has been replaced with "To Harass And Generate Revenue". I always joke to my wife when we are out driving and I see a LEO on the road, about how safe I feel now...then I laugh.

 

That is a DANGEROUS game for the Government to get into. I know some very rural people in this county that would go straight to violence over $3,170.

 

Death by taxation

a rose by any other name.....just saying

 

It can be a tough spot that snowballs. Take a look at Maricopa County. They do not play around at all there.

 

Look into Sheriff Joe Arpaios' past and get a real surprise.

 

WAIT.......let me guess.

He used to perform sock puppet shows for sick orphans at the Salvation Army twice a month. After the show he would sit out back with the illegal immigrants that worked in the hospital laundry room smoking dope and punting stray cats over the fence.

 

How about CIA and a cold blooded killer ?

 

You will have that on these big jobs.

 

I know Sheriff Jo's history. People change through time. Some for the good and some for the bad.

 

I actually used to live in that “county in Pennsylvania, 26 different fees totaling $2,500 are assessed in addition to the fine.”

It is Washington County, PA. The whole system is rigged to keep you in and paying.​

Here is how it works, I had a probation officer explain it to me.​

Say you get a DUI and are going to be placed in county lockup because of it. If you dont have a job you are thrown into general population or RELEASED...not locked up at all.​

BUT, if you have a job you will be locked up without question as they know YOU can pay and they can fund THEIR system with it. Then they allow you to be on work release but they dock your pay at 20%, plus make you pay a daily rate and of course the additional fines. Once you are done with that they place you on probation for 1-3 years of which you have meetings 2-4 times a month and drug tests. Plus you have to pay $17.50 a day for such probation.​

In the end, they are punishing the people with jobs and the ability to pay and ruining their lives for non-violent crimes. Pretty crazy.​